U.K. Natural Gas Advances as Temperature Drops to 11-Month Low

By Matthew Brown -
Jan 22, 2013

U.K. natural gas for within-day
delivery rose as temperatures dropped to the lowest level in
more than 11 months, boosting demand for the heating fuel.

Same-day gas climbed as much as 1.6 percent, according to
broker data compiled by Bloomberg. The low temperature in London
was minus 7 degrees Celsius (19 Fahrenheit) today, the least
since Feb. 12, CustomWeather Inc. data on Bloomberg show. Demand
in the 24 hours to 6 a.m. tomorrow was probably be 386 million
cubic meters, the most since Jan. 16 and above the seasonal
normal of 309 million, National Grid Plc (NG/) data show.

Gas for today climbed 1.2 percent, or 0.8 pence, to 67.75
pence a therm at 9:29 p.m. London time. Month-ahead gas added
0.2 percent to 66.35 pence a therm. That’s equivalent to $10.50
per million British thermal units and compares with $3.638 per
million Btu of front-month U.S. gas.

The delivery network was predicted to end the period with
340 million cubic meters of gas, down from 354 million, National
Grid data show.

Flows from Norway, the U.K.’s biggest source of imported
gas, were at 112 million cubic meters a day, compared with a 30-
day average of 116 million, Gassco AS data show.

Imports from Belgium were at a rate of 27 million cubic
meters a day, the 14th consecutive day of shipments to the U.K.
along the reversible pipeline between Zeebrugge and Bacton,
Interconnector Ltd. data show.

Inventories

Inventories at Rough, the U.K.’s biggest gas-storage
facility, were at 25,601 gigawatt-hours yesterday, down from
about 31,000 at the same time last year, yet up from 17,000 in
2011, National Grid data show. So-called medium-range storage
was at 8,574 gigawatt-hours, a record for the time of year.